Francois Sebastien Charles Joseph de Croix

Francois Sebastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt (14 October 1733-21 July 1798) was a Field Marshal of the Holy Roman Empire during the French Revolutionary Wars.

Biography
Francois Sebastien Charles Joseph de Croix was born in Bruille, Hainaut, Austrian Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire on 14 October 1733 to a family of Walloons, and he entered the Reichsarmee in 1753. He earned rapid promotion during the Seven Years War, rising to the rank of colonel by the war's end in 1763. In 1787, he decided against joining the people of Flanders during their rebellion against the Austrians, and he became a Lieutenant Field Marshal during the war with the Ottoman Empire. During the French Revolutionary Wars, he commanded Austrian forces in Belgium, and he fought in engagements from the Battle of Valmy in September 1792 to the May 1794 Battle of Tourcoing. He replaced Josias of Saxe-Coburg as commander of the Austrian army in Flanders, and he fought against Jean-Baptiste Jourdan in western France from 1794 until the peace of 1796. He resigned from the Reichsarmee in 1798, and he died in 1798 at the age of 64.